I finished reading Jonathan Strahan's The Starry Rift Anthology the other day. This was the first anthology that I read from cover to cover (I'm trying to get more into short stories). I've read other anthologies in bits and pieces, and the odd short here and there, but with this book, I thought, that I needed to add a bit of breadth, and I respect Strahan's work a lot, so I gave it a go. And I quite enjoyed it.
I think that I'll read more anthologies in this fashion in the future. The momentum and immersion of reading a novel is something that I enjoy a lot, and have had a hard time replicating when I'm reading short stories, but I figure this can be learned. I feel like I learned a bunch from the stories, both about the discourse and craft of short story writing.
I've also picked up Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. While I guess I read Red Mars years ago for school, I never really got into it. Or so I thought. As I've read these books again, I'm surprised and fascinated to learn how much they've influenced my writing and the way I think about science fiction world building and dealing with future possibilities.
And the books are really well done. In the last few days, I've read about a third of the last book (which is big in comparison to the other two,) and I'll likely have read even more by the time I get around to posting this. After that, on to more Delany or another anthology.
My goal, I guess, insofar as I have one, is to get to a point where I can read a book a week, give or take. I'm not a particularly fast reader by default but I think as I read less than I'd like (perhaps) I've slowed down. Gotta change that.